Trust, Weakness and Peer Pressure
by MagpieDreamer
Summary: DustinMarah. After 'Beevil', Sensei attempts to explain Marah's actions to Dustin.


Trust, Weakness and Peer Pressure  
  
Author's notes: Believe me when I tell you that when I first saw NS and the general format I totally saw the whole Marah and Dustin situation coming before 'Beevil' came out. Seriously, I'm not kidding! I just have this weird sixth sense for 'ships.... Anyway, I love the idea of Dustin and Marah as a couple, and after I saw 'Beevil', I decided I had to write something for at least a little closure, because Saban (growl, rant, rave,) very rarely ever gives us any of our own... (more growling, ranting and raving). Anyway, please read and review or SUFFER THE WRATH OF THE DISPLEASED MAGPIE!  
  
Achem.  
  
On the with fic...  
  
Trust, Weakness and Peer Pressure  
  
Dustin was leaning on the hand rail on the edge of the track, under the pretence of watching the race. He blew up into his fringe, eyeing the place in the track where he had first dived to Marah's rescue, then buried his head in his arms. He'd been played. Duped. Had the wool pulled over his arms.  
  
-Why am I so gullible?-  
  
"You are... very much... hung up... over this incident with my niece, aren't you?"  
  
Dustin blinked and looked over, to see, to his surprise, Sensei, sat on the hand rail beside his elbow.  
  
"Sensei?"  
  
"Apparently." The guinea pig replied, a hint of a chuckle on his furry features.  
  
"How did you..." Dustin trailed off as he saw Blake and Hunter wandering off in the opposite direction. Sensei bowed slightly.  
  
"I took the liberty of requesting a lift from your fellow rangers. Tori informed me you would be here, and so you are."  
  
"I guess," Dustin muttered, wresting his chin on his forearms and staring glumly out at that spot again.  
  
"Now," Sensei continued, in a brisk tone, "would you like to talk, or shall I?"  
  
Dustin shrugged. "Whatever, man." Normally, he would never have used such a dead pan tone with his Sensei, but, really, he was too low to care right then.  
  
"Alright." Sensei valiantly undertook the task of talking Dustin out of his depression. "You are depressed. You resent the fact that Marah betrayed you so readily, but you resent more the fact that you allowed yourself to be betrayed, and that you trusted her so easily. Am I correct?"  
  
"I guess." Dustin still didn't feel particularly forthcoming on the subject. It didn't help that a large chunk of his problem was that he had actually allowed himself to become very much emotionally attached to Lothor's niece, and was now suffering a severe case of broken heartedness.  
  
"Dustin, what did you tell me when justifying your case over Marah?" Sensei pressed on patiently.  
  
Dustin shrugged slightly, still staring despondently at the race track. "Uh... I dunno... something about instinct. Whatever, man, I was wrong."  
  
"You said," Sensei told his pupil, " 'a ninja's most valuable weapon is his instinct.' And I was proud of you, Dustin, because you were and are right. That's something I taught you a long time ago and I was pleased you had remembered, however, I think that you may be missing something of the point."  
  
"Like what?" Dustin was taking a little more interest now, his ego boosted somewhat by Sensei's praise.  
  
"Your instinct was not wrong." Sensei replied.  
  
Dustin raised his eyebrows. "No offence, Sensei, but I'm pretty sure it was."  
  
Sensei sighed and tugged thoughtfully at his whiskers, apparently contemplating how to go about presenting the situation in a way that Dustin could more easily 'get'.  
  
"Marah, like most children brought up within a society based on evil, is under great pressure to be as... well, evil as possible, no matter what her true personality or morals tell her to do." He began, slowly, "bullying within the sort of society that Marah has grown up in is not only an everyday part of life but is actively encouraged. It is... considered to be character building. Such a childhood leaves someone like Marah with very little will power. Do you understand?"  
  
Dustin scratched his head. "You're loosing me, here, Sensei."  
  
"What I am saying, Dustin," Sensei said, "is that Marah was won over by you with very little encouragement, am I correct?"  
  
"Well, I guess..." Dustin admitted.  
  
"And I am sure that while she was with you she meant every word of what she was saying." Sensei continued, "however, if it took such little argument to convert her to a cause she had been taught to hate for the entirety of her life, do you not think she could have been won back to the cause she had been taught to back all her life with even less convincing? Her resolve would be extremely fragile no matter which side she bent to."  
  
Dustin was still scratching his head, although he was starting to think he got what Sensei was trying to say, "so you're saying she was just... trying to fit in?"  
  
"Indeed." Sensei replied. "And which would you rather have done had you been in her shoes? Join a cause you had been taught to hate with someone you hardly knew, or stay with a cause you had been brought up with, with your uncle and sister who you finally had a chance to properly impress? Such a flaw does not make Marah evil... simply... weak."  
  
"I guess I see what you're saying." Dustin sighed.  
  
Sensei patted the yellow ranger's arm with a paw. "I doubt that Marah set out to betray you so harshly, Dustin. In fact, I suspect that beneath it all, she regrets her actions. And perhaps she may yet turn back to the side of good, given time."  
  
"Oh, I don't know, Sensei, that just might be stretching it..." Dustin ran a hand through his hair.  
  
"Dustin, perhaps I should draw your attention to the incident with your bike..." Sensei suggested, gently. "For a long time you believed all to be lost, did you not? And that you would never get your bike back."  
  
"Well, yeah..." Dustin shrugged. "So?"  
  
Sensei's whisker's twitched wisely. "In the end, the man did indeed bring your bike back, did he not?"  
  
End 


End file.
